Arts
‘The Weeping Time’ and the story of the largest slave auction in American history
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Off The Page from WSKG · Anne Bailey – The Weeping Time
Between 1760 and 1860, more than 1.2 million enslaved men, women and children were sold in the United States. The wealth of a nation was built on the trade of people – of slaves – yet most of us know very little about these auctions or the people who were sold there. Professor Anne Bailey from Binghamton University is
working to change that. Her book, The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History, tells the story of a specific auction in 1859. But it also examines the trauma that still exists today, and the healing that families are finding as they trace their lineage back to the auction block.